The Cost of Retail Payments
The Central Bank of Iceland has published the first issue of a new series of reports entitled The Cost of Retail Payments. The report will be issued once a year.
In the report, the Central Bank explains which payment instruments and services are used most often to pay for goods and services in Iceland and to transfer funds between individuals within Iceland and across borders. Also included is a summary of the fees paid by participants in the payment intermediation value chain (households, payment service providers, and merchants) to other participants for the use of payment instruments and services. This information will be published annually. Every two to three years, the Bank will also publish the results of its estimate of the social costs of retail payments intermediation. This information is also included in the report released today. The data are compiled with the aim of shedding light on the cost of using various payment instruments and services and determining, among other things, whether a given payment instrument or service is more economical than others for society.